A delegation from the Nishkam Group of Organisations was invited to The Phoenix Newspaper 5th Anniversary Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony at Bethel Convention Centre to mark the newspaper’s achievements on Saturday 5th December 2015. The black tie, red carpet event was sold as it was marketed as ‘the event to be seen at for 2015’.

The evening started with canapés and drinks, an opportunity to
network and photographs as guests arrived and made their way down the red carpet. The Nishkam Group attendees were respected Bhai Sahib (Dr) Mohinder Singh Ahluwalia, Chairman of Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (GNNSJ) and Nishkam Civic Association, accompanied by his wife, Mrs Baldev Kaur, Mr Sewa Singh Mandla, and Nishkam Centre Director, Amrick Singh and his wife Sharanjit Kaur.

The Nishkam table prior to dinner being served

Some 500 guests made their way to their tables to enjoy the meal and speeches. The Nishkam table as well as the Nishkam attendees also had Neena Gill, the MEP for the West Midlands, Ninder Singh Johal the current President of the Black Country Chamber of Commerce (BCCC), member of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) and his wife. Ninder took the opportunity prior to dinner being served to congratulate Bhai Sahib Ji on receipt of his OBE and the Papal Knighthood he received.

It was joyous to see so many colleagues and friends come together to celebrate a commendable achievement and to share the moment with Marcia and her team. Bishop Wollaston who had previously visited the UK from America and visited Bhai Sahib ji at the

Marcia McLaughlin catches up with Bhai Sahib Ji

Gurudwara, had returned to the UK especially for the awards ceremony. The Bishop came to say hello to Bhai Sahib Ji and they had a quick catch up. Another VIP that came to say hello to Bhai Sahib Ji was Mykal Brown, who was the other person who had a coin dedicated to him in Handsworth along with Bhai Sahib Ji and Merrise Crooks-Bishton.

During dinner there were performances from Community Gospel Choir, Ronald Dewit and Melika Queely. After dinner speeches from a number of invited Guest Speakers including Bhai Sahib Bhai Mohinder Singh OBE, Keith Stokes-Smith and Olusegun Dosumu.

Bhai Sahib Ji started by welcoming everyone to the event and congratulated Marcia on a great achievement. He also took the opportunity to promote key messages about values and virtues, community cohesion, the media being used in a positive means as opposed to promoting negative attitudes.

“The media should promote community cohesion interfaith dialogue

and collaboration it should build on the existing 24 moral and spiritual dispositions that were created for the Birmingham RE syllabus in 2007. The media should share our understanding of religion and cultures and its coverage should be more frequent and consistent when covering interfaith events. Media should promote peace; it is peace that we all want; individual peace, family, community peace and global peace”. This comment received rapturous applause from the audience.

Bhai Sahib Bhai Mohinder Singh OBE addresses the VIP gathering

“We must have more dialogue and promote dialogue, without dialogue there is a fear of the unknown that leads to prejudice and conflict.” Bhai Sahib also referred to the Declaration of Universal Human Rights and asked the audience if anybody had heard of the Declaration of Responsibilities – no one had. He then quoted a clause from article 5 pertaining to non-violence and respect for life,

Keith Stokes-Smith delivers his messages and raises awareness of the Commonwealth Association

“Every person has a responsibility to respect life. No one has the right to injure, to torture or to kill another human person. This does not exclude the right of justified self-defence of individuals or communities.” Once again, this received a round of applause. “I feel humanity has to revisit and resuscitate this Declaration of Human Responsibilities”.

Bhai Sahib Ji also suggested that we should make sure all our media professionals are trained and educated to ensure proper coverage of events. In particular he said it was important that the media covered faith-based and religious events in a fair and balanced way so that the chance of any misrepresentation, misquoting, or abuse of reporting was minimised. “The media, like the mind, can be your best friend and also your worst enemy”, he said. “Finally I want to again congratulate Marcia and her staff for the excellent work they continue to do.”

All the guests captivated during the performances and Awards Ceremony

Bhai Sahib Ji’s address was followed by Keith Stokes-Smith, Chairman of Birmingham Commonwealth Association. He reiterated many of the messages delivered by Bhai Sahib Ji and suggested that people take more responsibility for their actions. He also went on to say that the Phoenix was a great friend and ally of the Birmingham Commonwealth Association, congratulated them on their achievements over the last five years and wished him well for the next five years.

Once the guests had enjoyed dinner, they were shown into the auditorium which could accommodate up to 4000 people. Following the Dhol Blasters, Gospel Central, with Mark Dwayne and Sticky Toffee Dancers entertained the guests and set the scene for the awards. The audience was then presented with a series of performances and guest speakers presenting their thanks and gratitude to the Phoenix and in particular Marcia for her dedication and commitment.

achievements and contributions. GNNSJ was a nomination for the ‘Best Place of Worship’ award. A surprise award not listed in the program was made by Marcia McLaughlin when she called Ninder Johal to announce a special award. He came on stage and said that the award was in recognition of the great contribution to Humanitarian Services. He then began to read key bullet points from Bhai Sahib Dr Mohinder Singh OBE’s biography. At this point he invited Bhai Sahib Ji on to the stage to collect his award to a great round of applause from the audience.

After the event Bhai Sahib Ji said,”I am truly honoured to receive this Humanitarian Achievement Award. In all humility, I believe I am fulfilling my service to humanity and doing what any human being should be doing. “I am privileged to be Spiritual Leader and Chairman of the Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha, and to be able to undertake service to mankind. We must empower individuals, families and society with values and virtues that create

Group photo opportunity at the end

good human beings; this will ultimately create a much better society. The work that the Phoenix is doing is commendable. I would encourage it to undertake an even more proactive role in promoting faith from a practitioner’s perspective as opposed to a theological perspective. Once again we thank Marcia for her work on the Phoenix and to everybody responsible for my receiving this prestigious award. I accept this on behalf of the Nishkam family and all the people who work behind the scenes to help me achieve what we do.”

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Notes to Editors:

For more information:

For further information and queries please contact Amrick Singh 01215154229